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Best-selling Blackburn author made library patron

BEST-selling Blackburn author Josephine Cox will become a patron of Blackburn with Darwen’s library service.

The international author will attend a plaque-unveiling ceremony to mark the occasion at Blackburn Central Library today.

She is visiting her hometown as her 50th book, The Runaway Woman, is published.

Executive member for leisure at the council, Damian Talbot, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Josephine has agreed to be a patron for our library service.

“She is an international bestselling author and we are very proud that she's local born and bred.”

Josephine was born in Blackburn and was one of 10 children. At the age of 16, she met and married her husband, Ken, and had two sons. When the boys started school, she decided to go to college and eventually gained a place at university but was unable to take this up as it would have meant living away from home.

Instead, she went into teaching – and started to write her first full-length novel. She won the ‘Superwoman of Great Britain’ Award, for which her family had secretly entered her, at the same time as her novel was accepted for publication.

The author will meet a group of school children from 10.30am until 12pm, before hosting an informal drop-in session with fans until 1pm. She is also holding An Audience with Josephine Cox at Thwaites Theatre event later that evening for Child Action North West.